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Del’s Lemonade

Del’s is a brand of frozen lemonade typically found in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts during the summer months. Del’s has locations in 12 states and the Virgin Islands.[1] Frozen lemonade is a kind of slush. It is made from crushed ice, lemons, and sugar. In Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts “Del’s” is synonymous with frozen lemonade.

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Del’s founder, Angelo DeLucia, originally got his recipe from his father, Franco DeLucia, who brought the recipe to the United States from Italy. Angelo then tried to find a way to make a machine to produce the beverage, a task he accomplished.

The first Del’s stand was a small, pushable cart in Cranston, Rhode Island, in 1948. Soon after, he started using “Del’s Trucks” to serve the beverage anywhere in the state. The company still uses the trucks today in addition to its storefront locations.

The Rhode Island legislature made an attempt to decide on an official state beverage. After much contemplation, Del’s lemonade and coffee milk were the “finalists.” However in 1993, coffee milk was chosen as the official state beverage.

There are eight flavors of the popular drink: lemon, lite lemon, watermelon, peach-mango, blueberry, cherry, grapefruit, and pomegranate. Coffee was once a flavor but has not appeared on the menu for many years. Del’s also sells other various products such as warm pretzels, candy, hot dogs, and popcorn.

Del’s operates franchises selling their prepared product, with 20 locations in Rhode Island, the most of any state, as well as locations throughout the US, and even internationally. Trucks selling the product are often seen at popular beach locations in summer months. The Del’s “take-home” mix and non-frozen variety of lemonade can be found in grocery stores throughout the world.

NOTE: There’s one thing Wikipedia doesn’t have here and that the first store was on Gansett Ave. in Cranston , R.I. , it was a small part of the Boston Submarine Sandwich shop , Mr. Del rented a tiny space there in the summer and then went to Florida in the winter and sold Lemonade there too I believe ..

I remember Mr. Del , he spoke in broken english and was very nice to all the kids who went there.

Back then the cups were 10 cents , 15 cents and 25 cents , Mr. Del would always give the kids a bigger cup than what they paid for , so if you bought a 10 cent cup you would get a 15 cent cup

When he go to old I guess a relative took over and made the first official store on Oaklawn Ave. in Cranston , R.I.